Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon.
Semiconductor devices may include micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) structures, including inertial sensors applications, such as motion sensors, accelerometers, and gyroscopes. Therefore, the technology of forming micro-structures with dimensions in the micrometer scale may be required.
Although existing manufacturing processes for MEMS structures may have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, as device scaling-down continues, they may have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects.